Sunrises and Fresh Rain

Rainbow Dash slunk, cat-like, into her bedroom, her hooves making muted squishes against the cloud floor, as quiet as the mare could possibly make it. She stole in, looking over her shoulder out of instinct, albeit it was her own home, and there was almost certain nopony could see her.

Almost.

With one last stolen glance behind her, Dash bent over a box tucked away in the corner of her sleeping quarters. Small and ornately-carved with a swirled motif, it was quite possibly the girliest possession the tough mare owned, fitting for one tiny object, folded and hidden in its wooden hollows.

Dash gingerly lifted the decorated, aging lid, feeling around blindly with a clumsy hoof before she found what she had been searching for. One quick dive later, the mare withdrew her head from the little box, a folded, yellowing bit of paper clenched between her teeth.

It tasted salty, earthy, essence from the carved box in which the slip had been kept for years, untouched, though Dash did not drop it, holding it in her jaw as though she held her soul clamped with it.

She replaced the lid onto the treasured box, sliding it back into its corner, out of sight behind a tuft of the cloud lining. Dash pushed it delicately, even though it was empty. The box, so quirkily-carved, one-of-a-kind, held a little bit of her between the wooden swirls, not to mention the slip she had just pulled from it.

The pegasus turned on her heel, leaving the room. The squishes of hoof-on-cloud came to her again, but this time she listened, quietly, pensively. Her wings lay clipped to her sides.

For once, Rainbow Dash just felt like walking.

Putting herself onto the cushy living room couch, Rainbow let the page fall from her mouth, catching it in her hooves with the flyer's dexterity she had developed through blood, sweat, and tears.

Dash unfolded the faded page, slowly, more gently than she had handled anything in her life, as if it were going to crinkle to ashy nothingness under her hooves. She didn't smooth it down over her leg, or press out the wrinkles, but simply left it, the deep creases reminding her of exactly when she got it, and from who. They gave the page character, seconded only by the words written on it.

Finally, the pegasus leaned back, taking the page in both hooves.

And so she read.

*~*~*

     "Ahem..." Fluttershy cleared her throat quietly, her hoof hovering over her mouth as she stared at the ground in her usual abashed manner. Finally, she looked up, pushing the sheet of pink hair from her visage.

     "Rainbow Dashhhh!" She called into the thick cloud haze above her, so quietly it would be a wonder if the blue pegasus could hear her standing two feet away.

     To the yellow mare, however, the pitiful cry sounded like a truly enviable burst of volume and assertion.

      But somehow, drifting through the white blanket of fluff separating the two, Rainbow Dash had heard her.

      "Flutters? 'That you?" Rainbow's head poked up from the underside of the cloud layer, craning around as the mare with the messy prismatic mane searched for the source of the call. She needn't look far, however, as Fluttershy stood directly below, head tilted back as she met her marefriend's gaze.

     "Do you...um...do you remember what day it is?" Fluttershy asked, begging her question back as soon as it left her lips. Of course Rainbow Dash would remember.

     "Yeah, of course!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a wide smile. Fluttershy giggled inwardly at the mare's never-failing enthusiasm. With Rainbow Dash, the weather was always sunny or sunnier, even now, even as Fluttershy stood in the deep shadow of the cloud cover that enveloped the cyan mare.

      "Are you ready to go, Rainbow Dash?" She asked, pawing absently against the cobblestone street surface below her.

     Rainbow sighed, her face growing dim like a dying lantern. "I would be, but-" She thrust her forehooves through the cloud, batting it around in an absurd, upside-down doggy-paddle. "You see all the work I gotta do."

    Oh, how Dash wished for a breeze, a gale, a hurricane to roll by and do her job for her. Then again, the mare had pondered these scenarios so often she had wrung them dry, but never for such a good reason as was now the case.

      "...Would you like some help?" Fluttershy didn't wait for an answer, unfurling her wings to flit up to her washed-out marefriend's level. She broke through the cloud layer with ease, squinting her eyes in the beaming sunlight that Ponyville had been deprived of.

      Rainbow pulled her head out from the tuft, shaking off a bit of fluff as she reared up to look at the yellow mare, now standing beside her with a smile. A smile of her own tugged at Dash's cheeks as her eyes narrowed.

Let's do this.

*~*~*

Rainbow clenched the strip of paper in her hooves, slightly wrinkling it in the moment, but she didn't notice. She stared ahead of her, looking but not seeing, drawing the page close to her chest, as if she wanted to lock it there, right next to her beating heart.

She blinked once, twice, in rapid succession. Her teeth were clenched like a vice, a smile spreading on the mare's face as affection rushed through her, pounding through her veins, sweet and thicker than honey.

Folding the paper back up, Dash allowed her hooves to fall to her lap, one folded over the other, the paper tucked between them. She kept staring at nothing, before taking notice of the shadow which had begun to grow longer and longer over her room, evening beginning to creep in like silk from the window.

Rainbow Dash perked up through the growing darkness, eyes widening and eyes springing to attention. She leaped from the couch, wings extending to full maximum, while looping back around to tuck the note under the pillow. Even in a hurry, Dash was careful not to make any more creases than there already were.

With a frenzied glance at the time, Rainbow Dash tumbled out the door, breaking into flight and disappearing over the horizon, leaving her cloud home entrance wide open to the night breezes.

A draft of cool air blew in, picking and nipping at the corner of the paper Dash had tucked halfway under the pillow. It blew the half-folded page open, leaving it to whisper and flutter in the breeze, words legible to anyone who would read them.

'Dear Rainbow Dash-

I love you too.

-Fluttershy'

*~*~*

        "Geez, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash kicked back, her wings supporting her in a mid-air backstroke, drifting through the blue, now cleared sky. "Fancy wingwork there. Where'd you learn that?" The pegasus asked in mock-curiosity; she very well knew the answer.

     Fluttershy returned her grin, her wings flapping gently, keeping her hovering in the air like a jellyfish in the water. "You taught me, Dashie."

     Rainbow Dash let out hoot of laughter, propping her head up in her hooves on a cushion of air. "Yeah, I'm pulling your leg, Flutters. 'Course I remember."

     She felt a tap on her snout. Rainbow crinkled her nose and squinted, eyeing the newly-developing layer of cloud above her she was charged to make room for earlier, before going comically cross-eyed to catch sight of the little splash of wetness on her snout.

     "Ugh, we better go soon, Fluttershy, it's getting there."

     The yellow pegasus drew her hooves to her chest, softly clopping them together happily; she was so effortlessly-adorable, it weakened Dash's knees, and she thanked her lucky stars she wasn't standing.

      "Yay."

      Rainbow Dash had to consciously keep her forelegs clipped to the side, or else envelop her marefriend in a bear hug that may well send the both of them plummeting to the earth.

     Maybe it was worth it.

*~*~*

The sky had grown steadily darker since Dash had so carelessly zoomed out of her cloud home, now a rich blue velvet blanket, dotted with a few, very faint, grey clouds. This didn't matter to the mare,however; she knew just how quickly clouds to spiral together and pour rain, thanks to those seemingly endless lessons with Twilight.

The sun had long since slipped over the horizon, but Dash was not deterred or at all cumbered by the darkness, navigating over hill and dale with a keen eye and even keener flight. She watched the ground pass under her, stones and patches of grass blurring together in streaks of darkened greens and browns, showing even darker under her rippling shadow, wings spread like an eagle.

Trees, tall forest pines, grew larger over the horizon as Dash approached the brink of the Everfree. She reached the very edge, weaving between the towering giants with webbing branches, diving, swooshing, tilting this way and that at a skill level that couldn't be described as anything short of masterful.

Dash swooped under a thick branch, the needles scraping over her back, ruffling her windswept coat even further. She shivered, diving back up over the trees.

The mare paused, enveloped in the clouds, her wings still beating out of instinct. She hovered above a large, wide cloud, light grey in the evening darkness but surely a gleaming white in the daylight. She was so far out, away from any other pony, whether they be in Ponyville or somewhere far on the outskirts of Cloudsdale.

Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud surface, sinking slightly into the fluff. She listened to the stillness of the night, absolute silence save for the wind whistling through the trees below. The cloud stretched on, tufts rising from it like cotton candy, lighter than air.

Dash could see it, she could see it, in her mind's eye; two fillies, far away from any others, just the two of them, years ago, on a cloud just like this.

Rainbow sat on her haunches, staring over the cloud surface at the empty air, which her mind filled with images of her and a yellow filly, a little taller than the rest of the girls her age. She watched herself coaching and cheering the yellow filly into the sky, for the very first time.  She watched her hover, the yellow filly's eyes shut tight before opening to see the cloud far below her and the cheers of a minute-sized Rainbow Dash ringing in her ears.

Rainbow Dash had always had friends, drawing ponies to her with a naturally lustrous and magnetic boldness and a daring sense of adventure. Fluttershy never had been so gifted; quietly sitting in the back, watching Dash from the wall like a climbing vine. Somehow, even then, they had come together, the two most unlikely.

So it had stayed, from the edge of the cloud that very first time, to Fluttershy's first flight, to the notes.

And now, just before the break of spring, one cyan mare sat by herself, watching herself play with a little yellow filly, her confidant, best friend, and the only pony she had ever loved.

     *~*~*

      As soon as her hooves hit the ground, Fluttershy realized how nice it was to be on all four again. Perhaps she was just distracted a moment ago, but she had always known she was a pegasus, perhaps the only, not born to fly. Perhaps, and it was a fact Fluttershy had well mulled over and come to terms with, she would never have left the ground at all so many years ago were it not for the cyan mare, who touched down with surprising grace next to her.

      "Something on your mind, 'Shy?" Rainbow Dash asked, addressing her marefriend's distant look. Fluttershy was nearly staring through her.

     Immediately, her mind grounded as well. "Oh, nothing, Rainbow Dash." She smiled, hoping Rainbow Dash knew just how much she meant to her.

      And just how much she couldn't live without her.

      "Come on," Dash urged, though her voice was unusually quiet and gentle, comforting. "We better get a move on. We're gonna miss it."

      Fluttershy, still smiling that usual, soft smile, nodded.

      Rainbow Dash, just for her, didn't take the lead of zooming up ahead of the yellow mare on their way. She never did with Fluttershy; the need to be the best, fastest, strongest took a holiday around her. Dash knew, though the thought of saying this to any other pony tasted like vinegar, that around Fluttershy, she didn't have to be any better. She was already the best she could be, and certainly the luckiest.

      The two walked side-by-side, and Dash's wings stayed folded at her side; she had no desire to spread them.

      The grass grew tall around their hooves as the two left the town,  slowly encroaching onto the Everfree. Time passed, each second drawn out, and the sky began to darken, the sun sliding over them like a hot slab of butter, growing orange as it touched the horizon. Rainbow Dash, naturally had no issue navigating through the darkness, though once side glance proved Fluttershy to be squinting.

     "Here," Rainbow's voice echoed slightly through the trees, after several minutes of content silence. "Stick with me, I'll guide you."

      Being able to let her guard down around Fluttershy didn't mean Dash had to permanently relinquish the role of fearless protector.

      The timid mare obliged, scooting a little closer to her friend, their coats brushing. They continued, past dark trees and greenery, all glowing with that ethereal silver light of the moon, which had emerged with the sun's setting.

      Another tap hit Rainbow's ear, which twitched. "We have to hurry, I don't want us to end up like last year..."

      Fluttershy looked up, catching Rainbow's eye with her own watery blues. "You didn't like last year?"

     Rainbow laughed quietly, her smile shining through the darkness like the sun. She leaned in, nuzzling Fluttershy by the ear, under her silky bubblegum mane. "Of course I liked last year."

      Fluttershy leaned in, before withdrawing abruptly, leaving Dash to wonder what had gone wrong and immediately missing Fluttershy's warm and floral scent. The yellow mare stopped walking.

      "Something wr-?" Rainbow's concern was cut off by Fluttershy, her voice filled with an innocent wonder.

      "Look where we are, Dashie."

          Unbeknownst to the cyan mare, they had come to a clearing in the dense forest, an oasis surrounded on all sides by thick pines, with a canopy of leaves woven together over time blanketing half the area. In the center lay a small pond, reflecting yellow in the moonlight.

     It struck Rainbow Dash as instantly familiar, a vital moment in her life, though she hadn't been here so long ago. As another tap hit the top of her head and the night breeze tickled her fur, Rainbow Dash could once again see two mares under the canopy, one leaning against the other, watching rain make ripples in the pond.

      "Fluttershy..." Rainbow spoke quietly, just loud enough to catch the yellow mare's attention, who turned, before trailing away. She started again, her voice cracking slightly. "Can we-can we just stay here?"

      Fluttershy turned back, walking away from Dash, her hooves making quiet pats against a layer of mosses and moistened earth. She settled under the canopy, letting it shield her from the evening breezes, where she sat sprinkled with what little moonlight light eked through the spaces in the leafy blanket. She never answered Rainbow Dash's question.

      She didn't have to.

*~*~*

Rainbow Dash dove back down, sailing through the cloud layer, plunging to the earth, before pulling back up into level flight, back between the trees. She threaded the forest like a needle, in and out and around, her wings thrashing

through the air with as much power as they could muster.

Finally, the pegasus noticed the trees thinning, the bushery growing sparse, and she knew her destination was close.

As quickly as the thought entered her head, so came the butterflies in the pit of Rainbow's stomach.

She was nearly there. What then? Would she be mad if Rainbow Dash woke her so late? Would she not come out at all?

The idea bore a hole into Dash's mind. She could leave, right now, turn around and go right back where she came from, and no one would be any the wiser. She could watch the rain from her own home, dry, warm. And alone.

A cottage came into view, sitting at the neck of the forest through which Dash was coming. The sight of it forced the mare into a resolution; she wasn't turning back.

Rainbow Dash landed, all four hooves firmly planted on the ground, and she felt as though she was sinking into it. From her viewpoint, she could see Fluttershy's window, reflecting the white moon brightly, like liquid light. No light shined from within.

Dash considered her options. She couldn't knock; there were animals sleeping all around and throughout the house, curled up land mines that would wake up and surely cause their yellow caretaker quite some trouble, which wouldn't be helpful for the blue mare in the least.

What, then, could she do?

As she thought, preparing to hang her head in defeat, Rainbow's eyes fell on a patch of pebbles by her hoof.

Tap! The pebble glanced off the sill as Dash launched it, the way she had read in all those cheesy romance novels that Twilight had insisted she just *had to read. Rainbow herself was never much of a romantic; she knew it, the whole town knew it. At least, she never let on that the speed demon did indeed have a soft side, except to the yellow mare inside, who she was, unsuccessfully, trying to rouse.*

Rainbow picked up another pebble in her mouth and tossed it, this time making a louder sound as it bounced off the glass. She stood, waiting. Once again, there wasn't a peep from inside.

The cyan mare was growing impatient; they would surely miss the rains like this, or worse, get caught in it. Her eyes flicked over the ground, before zeroing in on the perfect projectile.

Twock! The acorn sailed into the window, echoing loudly and gruffly. If that didn't wake Fluttershy, then she was in a coma or dead. The thought sickened Rainbow Dash, and she found herself desperately hoping the yellow mare would poke her head out.

A second passed. Should she knock?

Another second or two. Maybe she should smash the door in.

Tick. Screw the animals.

Suddenly, a noise. "Rainbow Dash?" Called a sweet, buttery voice from a buttery yellow mare popping her head out the window. "It's still dark out!"

Relief washed over Dash like the tide, and she felt instantly two tons lighter, for more reasons than one. A laugh crept into her voice before she could stop it. "You don't say?" Suddenly, the urgency of the situation struck Rainbow again, and she bounced slightly on her hooves for emphasis. "C'mon, Fluttershy, or else we're going to miss it!"

Fluttershy didn't move, her words drawled. "Miss what?" She asked drowsily.

They didn't have time for this. Rainbow flicked her tail indignantly. "Just come on out, I promise you'll like it!"

The yellow mare didn't immediately respond, leaving her friend to rock impatiently back and forward. Rainbow could practically see her mind working, slowly and sleepily deciding whether to come along or not. The cyan mare mentally crossed her hooves, holding her breath.

Finally, she spoke, much to Dash's glee. "Coming, Rainbow Dash. Just one question, if that's okay."

Dash could have victory-punched the air, instead settling on a celebratory flick of her mane out of the way. "Anything, Flutters."

Fluttershy smiled. "Why the pebbles?"

Rainbow Dash held back a laugh, reveling in the sheer perfection of the moment, and surely how the rest of the evening would go. She had the perfect answer.

"Can't beat the classics."

*~*~*

      A roll of thunder rumbled loudly, followed by a crack of lightening splitting the night sky and weaving to the earth like a vein. Fluttershy squeaked ever so quietly and huddled into Rainbow Dash, resting her head, safe and comfortable, against her shoulder.

     Rainbow Dash felt the welcome pressure and softness of the timid mare's mane against her, and didn't move at all, pausing only to marvel at the intensity of the nature as the rain thundered down over their canopy and the lightening seared into the dark. They both stayed dry, however, and Dash had never felt safer in her life.

      Together, they stared into the clearing ahead, just as they did the last time, watching droplets of rain splash and ripple over the glassy pond surface. Neither said a word. The thunder rolled on.

     Drops of cool rain beaded up on the leafy canopy, before dripping down, making pats against the soaked forest bed. Every pat of the rain seemed perfectly in sync with Rainbow and Fluttershy's heartbeats, beating together as one.

     Fluttershy shifted slightly, and spoke in hardly more than a whisper. "Rainbow Dash..."

     Rainbow lifted her head, looking down at the big, bright blue eyes that consumed everything about her. "Hmm?"

      Fluttershy leaned her head back down, replacing it one her marefriend's shoulder, watching the rain roll once more. "I love you." She said, genuinely, with her whole heart. "So much."

     For once, her voice didn't waver.

     Rainbow Dash froze, suspended in midair, falling, flying, all at the same time, and she was aware of none of it. A bubble swelled inside her, so potent, so complete, and she could do nothing for it. Fluttershy had her.

      She did from the very beginning.

      Rainbow Dash touched Fluttershy's face with both hooves, lifting her up, tilting her so that their muzzles almost touched. They met each other's gaze for only a moment, before Dash sank her lips into the yellow mare's.

     The rain fell, and a thunderclap ripped through the night.

      Fluttershy flinched a tiny bit; Rainbow felt it under her hooves, gentle as it was. She pulled away, resting their foreheads together, damp mane tangling with damp mane.

      "Are you afraid?" Rainbow asked quietly, her breath teasing Fluttershy's nose.

     The yellow mare stopped, her mouth parted slightly, breathing deeply and evenly. She felt Dash's hooves against her cheeks, she could feel her warm breath, she could feel the fresh night breeze. There was only one thing Fluttershy didn't feel.

      Afraid.

      "No." She spoke, not regretting her words at all. She reared up, reconnecting their lips with more fire, more heat, more passion than ever before. It burned inside her, inside them both, all-consuming, eternal.

     Fluttershy sank backwards, the leafy bed catching her. Rainbow followed, propped over her marefriend, still connected at the lips.

     Rainbow felt it too. Her life came to her mind's eye, and in every memory, there was Fluttershy, right up until the last year, and the last spring rain, and everything from then to now.

      She couldn't imagine a life without the yellow mare, and Dash made up her mind that she would never need to.

      Right now, though, Fluttershy was beneath her for the first time, connected, so perfectly, at the lips. Fluttershy pulled away, for only a moment, and Rainbow Dash hardly heard her as she sunk back down.

     "I'm with you."

     And the thunder rolled.

*~*~*

Rainbow Dash, rain glancing off her body in thick drops, froze, completely, utterly, suspended in time. There they stood, in the middle of the silent streets of Ponyville, upon layers of soaked and slippery cobblestones under the torrential first rain of spring, with only the moonlight shimmering over her back.

She could feel Fluttershy beneath her, so delicate and vulnerable, her hooves drawn close to her chest. She could feel their lips pressed together, but she hardly dared to believe it.

It was then that Rainbow Dash knew, really knew, that this would not be the last time, not the last time like this, with Fluttershy.

She knew that even when the rain ended, this never would. It was only the beginning.

*~*~*

      The world was quiet

      ...

      Fluttershy stirred. A weight held her down, and she was only able to shift her form slightly.

      Her eyelids felt heavy as she opened them, her lashes still clinging together as little beads of water dripped down, streaking down her cheek. Her hair lay splayed around her, wet and wild as seaweed.

      Fluttershy became aware all at once of her place on the forest floor, damp leaves and moss cradling her body. She lay on her side, hooves drawn awkwardly in front of her, and, by Celestia, was there a cramp in her neck.

      Still, Fluttershy felt perfect.

      Something behind her shifted, and the mare noticed the sleeping, gently heaving figure cupping her. She became aware of the cyan hoof flung over her, hugging her close, as if Fluttershy was about to catch and blow away with the next breeze. She became aware of the muzzle buried in the back of her neck, breathing in her rainy-fresh scent.

      Fluttershy never wanted to move.

      The rain had long since ceased, but memories of the last night flooded back to her in torrents. Fluttershy smiled, feeling lighter than air, drifting into and past the clouds, taking Rainbow Dash, still sleeping, with her.

      Her view of the forest began to blur as Fluttershy lost focus, her memories blazing through her mind. Of one thing, though, the yellow mare was aware.

      The darkness had begun to clear, night fading into day slowly. Fluttershy blinked as sunlight flooded her eyes from between the trees, still fragrant from the rain.

      She allowed her eyes to sink closed, replacing her head against the leafy bed, pushing just that much closer into Rainbow Dash, confidant, best friend, the only pony she had ever loved.

     Somewhere, it was raining, fresh spring rain, the sweetest.

     Here, casting a long shadow over two ponies, one cyan, one yellow, the sun was rising.